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UAE Is Ready To Test New Face ID Technology In Service Delivery
It looks like UAE citizens won’t be required to identify themselves using government-issued documents in the near future. The country’s government has decided to greenlight an official trial of a new facial recognition technology (face ID technology) to further develop the services provided by the private and government sectors alike.
The decision was made at a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, which was chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai. “In a meeting today, we have approved a facial recognition technology to verify the identity of individuals instead of submitting a lot of documents,” tweeted His Highness.
If the initial trial turns out successful, the ministry will expand the use of the facial recognition technology and support the launch of a related set of services in some private sector institutions.
Besides being convenient and efficient, citizen identification using face ID technology could also help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus and other infectious diseases. Similar contactless identification solutions are currently being deployed across airports, banks, and private businesses.
The Cabinet also approved the National Standards Manual for Statistical Data to provide a unified framework for the collection, processing, storage, and presentation of statistical data. The goal here is to ensure a high level of quality in all statistical activities, which play an essential role in supporting important governmental decisions.
Also Read: Dubai Police Use Futuristic Technology To Read Murder Suspect’s Mind
The manual covers eight basic topics: economic statistics, social and demographic statistics, education statistics, employment statistics, environment statistics, buildings and housing units statistics, and administrative divisions of each emirate.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Cabinet reviewed a study dealing with the prevention of mental and physical disabilities and reducing the mortality rate among children by performing premarital screenings for genetic diseases. According to the study, premarital genetic tests can reliably predict the risk of developing genetic diseases.
News
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget
The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
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